Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Junya Yamamoto

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Hiromichi Suzuki

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Nobuyoshi Nagao

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Yuu Hirose

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Takashi Ohyama

Major in Integrative Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University Department of Biology, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University

So Umekage

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology

Yo Kikuchi

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Toyohashi University of Technology Major in Integrative Bioscience and Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

The marine bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum is a nonsulfur phototrophic bacterium, which is known to produce extracellular nucleic acids in soluble form in culture medium. In the present paper, constructing the response regulator ctrA-deficient mutant of R. sulfidophilum, we found that this mutation causes a significant decrease in the extracellular DNA production. However, by the introduction of a plasmid containing the wild type ctrA gene into the mutant, the amount of extracellular DNA produced was recovered. This is the first and clear evidence that the extracellular DNA production is actively controlled by the CtrA in R. sulfidophilum.